Six Sigma - Variation is Evil !
The moment you mention the word “Six Sigma”, it’d generate anxiety, fear, confusion and misinterpretation.
Sometime people even compare it to “Open Heart Surgery”
So what is Sig Sigma anyway ?
It's an approach that achieves below 5 results for an organisation:
- Improving Process
- Reducing Cost
- Enhancing Customer experience
- Building competitive advantage for the organisation
- Reducing waste and inefficiency
Six Sigma helps a company to go thru its processes and helps it to identify and reduce the variations.
Ok, so what is variation?
Airtel customer care in Delhi respond to a customer in 3 days but Airtel customer care in Bangalore responds to a customer in 1 day . That’s variation.
If there is variation, the confusion increases, the trust level falls and as a result the top line suffers.
Ask yourself : Will you order your grocery from a provider whose delivery dates aren't predictable?
There is a great side effect to Six Sigma - i.e. Exploring the root cause of the variation. You can get to the root cause of the problem by
- Collecting the right information
- Knowing how to analyse this information
The process of collecting and analysing the information builds the critical thinking and discipline into you. Hence you become a better leader.
Its equally important to know when NOT to use sig sigma:
- Creative activities like building new marketing initiatives, building artwork
- Writing new Ad copies, articles
- Once off transactions
And what six sigma IS NOT ?
Its isn’t about averages but variations.
Consider below hypothetical case:
In Jan Fedx delivers shoes to Delhi customers in 2 days, 6 days and 10 days. The average is 9 days
In Feb Fedx delivers shoes to Delhi customers in 1 day, 3 days and 16 days. The average is 10 days
Looks OK from Average perspective. Ain’t it ? But do you think Delhi customers will be happy with it ?
Lord of Glencoe and Lochaber - SKONSULT
9 年Dear Sir, you know that we europeans are always very keen on positive formulations. So if i would be the author of the article it would be: 6Sigma - Consitency is the Goal. Nice article, although i am not this big fan anymore seeing so many companies fail - not because of 6Sigma because of wrong usage as you described so nicely !
Director
9 年gud one Suren